Northwestern Elementary School students learned about illustrating books during a recent visit from author and illustrator Marty Kelley.

“In order to write a good book, you must come up with amazing ideas,” Kelley said. “Your ideas can come from places you have been, things you do, such as horseback riding, from another book you have read or from your own imagination.

“Your ideas can come from events happening in your own lives.”

Kelley, who has been drawing for 20 years, said he likes to draw and often gets ideas from a drawing he has created.

“If you make a mistake, go back, correct it and move on,” he told students.

Kelley creates thumbnail sketches of his work thinking his story is going one direction only to discover the picture he has drawn has taken the story in a different direction.

“After you have drawn a picture you like, your next step is to paint it,” he explained. “After you paint it once, do it over again.

“Always look for ways to prevent your picture from becoming boring.”

Before Kelley’s arrival music teacher Lara Krum had her second-grade students create a song featuring two of his books, “12 Terrible Things,” book about his brother’s smelly socks, jumping off a high dive board and a sloppy kiss from a great aunt, and “The Messiest Desk,” which depicts the trials of a student when his teacher tells him it is time to clean his desk.

The student found gooey wads of gum, a cockroach, spider and more. The desk was so messy the boy was sucked inside and had to be rescued.

For more information about Kelley, visitmartykelley.com.